A Bit of Randomness to GURPS / DF Initiative

 Normally GURPS doesn't have any randomness to the initiative order. It is strictly sequential based upon each participants' Basic Speed (a secondary characteristic factored from both DX (Dexterity) and HT (Health) and possibly further modified during chargen); DX then serves as a tie-breaker, with a final roll-off between individual players if their numbers are exactly the same. On the surface that's fine. It's quite different from D&D's initiative roll system, but I don't think I have an ideological preference either way.

 The turn sequence is largely predictable in GURPS within the same group, because PCs are often faster than the enemies they face. However it still needs to checked and recorded at the start of every combat, especially if the roster has recently changed. Figuring the initiative takes a few minutes, and I like to offload the list to someone else when I am GM. 

 What occurs to me is that the process in and of itself has no drama or excitement if every player already knows their relative position but it still needs to be recorded. The additional complication is that while I like to offload the task to a player, I also try not to give away NPC or monster stats, which is difficult when you want someone else to do the work. I had been thinking for a while about introducing a bit of randomness to the process, which should make it less of a passive exercise, and also reduce complacency about the fact that Miao will always go first.

 Basic Speed for a truely "average" human in GURPS / DF will be 5.00 (with quarter and half fractions being valid increments). Above average PCs will always be a little (or a lot) higher than this, and humanoid enemies will tend towards the lower end, with values ranging between 5.00 (basic humanoid) to 9.00 (levelled up cat-girl swashbuckler), and going lower or higher than that, the less human(oid) or more super-human the combatant.

 While I wanted to introduce some randomness, I don't want it to be as swing-y as D&D, nor to lessen the importance of Basic Speed by too much. I went with Basic Speed + 1d6, with first DX and then HT as tie-breakers. Miao will still usually go first, but the result is no longer 100% predictable, and now the slowest party member (NPC ally Brother Warian) will not always be guaranteed last.

 So far I think it has worked as intended, but we're only a couple of sessions in, so we'll see how it works on the longer term.